Just did a full system upgrade in a 2011 M3 with Enhanced Premium. Customer wanted to retain 100% OEM functionality, so current MOST interfaces were out.

The system we installed:

Morel Elate MT-23 28mm soft-dome tweeters

Hybrid Audio L4 SE "Carbon" (brand-new shallow midranges from HAT)

Jehnert XE200 shallow 8" woofers

Morel Ultimo SC122 carbon-fiber cone subwoofer

Two Zapco BTL attenuators and an Audio Control LC2i (for the LF channels)

Zapco DC200/DC500/DC1000 processor/amps

The system was set up with 50 watts per tweeter, 150 per mid, 150 per 8" midbass, and 500 for the sub. We retained the stock rear speakers, but set the fader to full Front, which mutes the rear speakers except during Rear PDC alerts. The client can bring the rear speakers in if they want, but he seems to have no desire for them. The rear sides and center were disconnected completely.

We used the DSP sections to compensate for some of the speaker-dependent EP equalization (that was mostly in the upper treble and low bass - most of the EP system's equalization is actually for cabin acoustics) as well as to delay the cabin speaker signal so that we could allow the subwoofer signal to arrive in phase with everything else. We also optimized the signal for the driver's seat.

The goal, as usual for us, was as close to an OEM appearance as possible, with 100% reversibility. This requires dying of trunk liner to match, as BMW matching trunk liner is not available in the States.

One twist - we only had this car for 2 days! He dropped it off Thursday am, and picked it up Saturday am and drove it away. We used our Musicar adapter parts for mounting, and the Musicar E92 subwoofer enclosure. Without having these parts all prepped and ready to drop in, there's no way that this install could have been done in two days.

A new set of tweeter sails was used. This allowed the stock parts to be unmodified.

The new and old mids side-by-side:

The 2-way passive xover for the EP mid and tweeter (was glued into the door!)

Turns out to be a 12dB high-pass low-pass - the most advanced passive I've ever seen from an OEM system (it would be considered low end in the aftermarket):

The Hybrid Audio Legatia 4 SE "Carbon" is their new slim 4" mid. It's not a wideband like the L4 and L4SE, it needs a tweeter, but it's 42mm deep, and that's the magic number for the E92! HAT has explained that this speaker was intended to go lower than it is higher, and can play with authority to 200 and below (perfect for the E9x cabin provisions).

We used our thick steel rings and gasket tape fore and aft:

So, there's nothing evident in the cabin at all.

Here's the assembled trunk:

From the cabin with the seat folded down (note slot across the front to allow air to circulate from the amp's fan cooling system):

So, the system sounds great tonally and from a stereo point of view. With program material with a strong center stage, it sounds as if there is a center channel - but the stage width hasn't collapsed, you still get the wide stage from recordings that use it. The sub is tight and bass notes are very clear - there is texture and detail even with the lowest bass notes we played.

The customer said that the aspects of the EP system that he found annoying and hard to listen to were gone - that this system was involving and enjoyable.

- the BMW floor weighs 5 pounds. The new floor and amp cover together weigh 10 pounds, so we added just 5 pounds with the trunk parts (plus the gear, of course - but those wooden parts were birch plywood for lightness)

- the Technic harness was of course used! We also ran wires into the door.

- we ran 4ga from the battery to the 1000 and another to a distro block, and 8ga was
used from the distro block to the amps.

- the amp rack in the corner is the one we tooled and is part f some of our prepackaged systems.

You can get a similar system for local install with plug-and-play parts and preprogrammed amps.

The amps are 150x4/50x2/500x1,Class AB. I've seen installs with more power than that which have activated the "excessive battery drain" warning in the E9x (I've tested some in my own E91). This system didn't trigger the draw warning, and we've done similar systems in M3, 335i, and 135i, all without issue over the longer haul.

As far as weight of the gear, the sub driver was 13 pounds (most of that is neodymium), the enclosure is 14, I will consider the upgraded tweeters, mids, and midbass speakers as a push, the aluminum amp rack is maybe 3 pounds, the wire was probably 15 pounds, and the amps themselves are roughly 10, 10, and 18, so between 80 and 85 pounds added. So, from a weight perspective, we added one Olsen twin (the thinner one).

Nice work Ken. When you have the time give me a call. I'm wondering if I should switch over to the HAT's for the door instead of using the Morel's that you sold to me (still haven't gotten around to installing the damn system yet =/)

Ken, would you still use the Morels now that HAT has the Legatia 1v2 tweets available?

Ridiculously nice build, as usual.

Thanks

I don't mean to speak for Scott about his products, but that tweeter was available at the time we did this project - we chose not to use it. The L1v2 needs a higher crossover point than the L4SE/c likes. The L1 Pro plays lower and is a better match, and the L1 Pro RR would have been my choice (since it's almost perfectly on axis in this application) but physically either is very hard to fit into the desired BMW trim piece. The Morel we used has a low Fs and can play down to meet the L4SE/c without asking it to play too high (remember that it's not a wideband design, and can't play smoothly as high as the other small mids from HAT).

I don't mean to speak for Scott about his products, but that tweeter was available at the time we did this project - we chose not to use it. The L1v2 needs a higher crossover point than the L4SE/c likes. The L1 Pro plays lower and is a better match, and the L1 Pro RR would have been my choice (since it's almost perfectly on axis in this application) but physically either is very hard to fit into the desired BMW trim piece. The Morel we used has a low Fs and can play down to meet the L4SE/c without asking it to play too high (remember that it's not a wideband design, and can't play smoothly as high as the other small mids from HAT).

Well thought out and executed, as usual.

I need to drive to Portland since I'm not getting around to putting in one of your systems myself. Haven't even gotten the windows tinted since I don't know who to go to in Vegas -- last two tints have just been ok but not great work.